From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

We're going to flip the script a bit this week with our RPP Report. We typically don't publish a report during week's where we have a monthly conference call as JC covers our positioning and summarizes our key themes and views there.

But we didn't do one last week either because we had just published our Q3 Playbook which laid out our current position in a painfully detailed manner (it was 250 pages!).

Premium members: read it here if you haven't yet.

In today's post, we're simply going to recap our "Key Themes For The Current Quarter" and update clients on some major developments that have taken place in the past few weeks.

We've got some important things to cover so let's get right to it!

The market has moved into a sideways trading range again. Post making new highs Nifty has traded sideways for over a month now.

While the Indian market has displayed a great deal of resilience compared to other markets, we're yet to see positive breadth thrusts and moves.

Let's take a look at what the breadth analysis is pointing at, given the current market setup.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

This is one of our favorite bottoms-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: Because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our latest "Under The Hood" column where we'll cover all the action for the week ended July 23, 2021. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated on-and-off with our "Minor Leaguers" column.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

Today we're going to take a look at a long setup in the Cements space. We initiated a buy on this stock in the month of April and from the looks of it, we now have to update the target!

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

You’re probably sick of hearing this but it’s important! Even with the recent bout of volatility, new lows have been non-existent across most of the major averages in the US.

To be fair, many of our Intermarket relationships are still flashing red, suggesting continued headwinds for risk assets. 

Earlier this week we saw significant selling pressure in equity markets both domestically and abroad. Conditions are as ripe as they’ve been in more than a year for the bears. 

So, did we finally get that “fall day,” as our fellow Technician and friend Mike Hurley likes to call it?

The simple answer is no...

To us, the recent readings from our breadth indicators are no different from similar pullbacks over the past 18 months and not what a significant market top would look like.

But we always need to remember that like anything else, analyzing internals is a process. 

With this in mind, let’s check in on the 21-day lows for all S&P market cap sizes:

We debuted a new scan recently- The Outperformers.

The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.

The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

A revolution in energy is upon us.

Some like to call it the green revolution or the transition to renewable and alternative energy. How you want to label it isn’t what matters. 

All we care about is that the landscape for energy and how we use it is changing dramatically.

As the world quickly changes and the demand for energy expands, how we generate and utilize it, as well as the natural resources we rely upon to do so - will inevitably change, and adapt to this new environment.

Of course, we’ll continue to burn coal, crude oil, and natural gas for the foreseeable future. But there are other pockets of strength arising in areas that could very well be secular growth trends for decades into the future.

We’re always looking to identify these new arenas of growth. Here’s the way we see it...

With strong prospects for global growth and economic expansion in the cards, additional energy sources will need to be created so that supply can meet the growing demand being placed on an already antiquated and stressed infrastructure.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

I've personally been in the market for a new or used car for a few months now, and let's just say it hasn't been easy. The entire supply chain has been disrupted, and the market has been unable to keep up with demand.

I finally made the decision to stop my search until the supply crunch for semiconductors and other critical inputs alleviates. I could be waiting a while though, as this has already been going on for about a year. Thankfully, I live on an island that is only 8 square miles, so my bike or feet can take me wherever I need to go in the meantime.

According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we’ve been working on internally is using various 'bottoms-up' tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!

One way we’re doing this is by identifying the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small, to mid, to large - and ultimately mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B) they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn’t just end there. We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Earlier in the week, we held our July Monthly Conference Call, which Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

In this post, we’ll do our best to summarize it by highlighting five of the most important charts and/or themes we covered, along with commentary on each.

Let’s get right into it!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

This is one of our favorite bottoms-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: Because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.